Remarks on Signing Into Law the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians Act

THE PRESIDENT. Senate bill 1647 establishes a seven-person commission that will work during the next 18 months to look into one of the disappointing and sometimes embarrassing occurrences in the history of our Nation.

In February of 1942, the President signed a proclamation setting aside certain areas of our country from which American citizens could be excluded and within which American citizens and resident aliens could be interned. This was in a time of war, but no German American citizens or aliens were incarcerated and no Italian Americans were interned either. The only ones who were interned in these camps were the Japanese Americans. There were about 120,000 of them, during the wartime period, who were interned.

In addition, about a thousand residents of Pribilof Island and the Aleutian Islands were removed from their homelands and brought to the mainland, because of the claim, which may have been completely legitimate, that those islands were subject to attack because of their exposed position. Later, some attempts were made for addressing these grievances for the thousand residents of the Aleutian Islands and the Pribilofs, for instance. Ten thousand dollars was set aside, a total. That's $10 per person to attempt some compensation for their inconvenience and their suffering. And as a matter of fact, some lives were lost.

I believe it'll be very helpful for this Commission to assess this episode in American history, to see if adequate compensation has been awarded under previous efforts, which were more generous in the case of the Japanese Americans, and also to reconfirm our Nation's commitment to basic human rights.

I'm grateful that Danny Inouye has taken the leadership in this legislation; Sparky Matsunaga, the other Senator from Hawaii, has also been instrumental in this; Senator Hayakawa from California-all of Japanese descent—and Ted Stevens, representing the citizens of the islands off the Alaska coast. We also, of course, have Congressman Mineta, Congressman Matsui, of Japanese descent, and others representing the citizens who are involved. Senator [Representative] Bob McClory is here, as well. The Japanese-American Citizens League has kept this issue alive, along with the Aleutian-Pribilof Island Association. And we have representatives from those groups here with us.

And it's with a great deal of pleasure that I sign this legislation into law. This Commission study will be adequately funded. It's not designed as a witch hunt. It's designed to expose clearly what has happened in a period of war in our Nation when many loyal American citizens of Japanese descent were embarrassed during that crucial time in our Nation's history. I don't believe anyone would doubt that injustices were done, and I don't think anyone would doubt that it is advisable now for us to have a clear understanding, as Americans, of this episode in the history of our country.

Now I'll sign the legislation into law.

[At this point, the President signed the bill.]

And I'd like 'to ask Senator Inouye if he has a comment, right, since he was the author of the bill.

SENATOR INOUYE. Mr. President, this has been a day awaited by many American citizens. I don't suppose that by this action we can set aside and rest, because we demonstrated that in a great democracy such as ours we can make mistakes. I just hope that we can maintain our vigilance so it will not happen again, sir.

THE PRESIDENT. Thank you, Danny, very much.

Sparky, would you like to make a comment?

SENATOR MATSUNAGA. I wish to thank you, Mr. President, for signing a bill which has been waited for for many, many years. I think it proves that this Nation of ours is great enough to recognize its mistakes where it has made mistakes, and I think the Commission's investigation will show that we, indeed, did make a mistake in dealing with a large segment of our population. And I am sure I speak in behalf of all Americans of Japanese ancestry in the United States when I say thank you, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT. Thank you, Sparky. Ted Stevens represents the Aleutians and Pribilof Island citizens, some of whom are here. Ted, would you like to

SENATOR STEVENS. Thank you very much, Mr. President.

I was delighted when the Senators from Hawaii were willing to accept the amendment that places the Aleut people under the same study, and I join with them in welcoming an opportunity to make the record for history and thank you for your administration accepting this initiative. I think it will be an interesting one, and I think it should lead to some actions to right some very old wrongs. I appreciate it very much.

THE PRESIDENT. Okay. Norm Mineta?

REPRESENTATIVE MINETA. Thank you, Mr. President.

Having been one of the 120,000, as a 10¼-year-old boy, being evacuated and interned, this to me is a very significant day, and I'm just very thankful to you for your leadership that you've shown in making sure that the Department of Justice was also supportive of our efforts in getting this bill passed. And I just feel that the facts that will come out of this Commission study will, as Senator Inouye says, guarantee that an incident like this shall never happen to anyone else.

THE PRESIDENT. I'd like to point out that all of the agencies of the Federal Government recommended that this legislation be signed.

REPRESENTATIVE MINETA. That's correct.

THE PRESIDENT. This is not always the case with legislation that comes to my desk. [Laughter] Bob?

REPRESENTATIVE McCLORY. Yes, I'd like to, Mr. President.

I'm very proud and happy that I had an opportunity to conduct the hearings and the markup of the bill amending it into the present form and also to manage it on the floor of the House, not only because of my long friendship with Spark and Dan and Norm and others who worked on the bill but because I have the honor of representing a district which probably has more Japanese Americans than any other district in the Congress.

Mr. President, I, all of us, have had some kind of an intimate experience with one part or the other of the work that is being undertaken by this Commission. And I know that we each individually have great expectations that this legislation can clear the air, it can improve the quality of life in our country and, as others have said, to assure that we do not have a recurrence of the experience that we had in World War II. Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT. Thank you.

One of the things that I should have said earlier and overlooked is that following this episode, our Government did make an honest attempt to give the Japanese American citizens a chance to express their grievances and to estimate their losses. The fact is that we want to be sure that those efforts were adequate, which will be judged by this Commission in its recommendation to me and to the Congress, and also, we want to make sure that their recommendations will prevent any recurrence of this abuse of the basic human rights of American citizens and also resident aliens, who enjoy the privileges of the protection not only of American law but of American principles and ideals.

Again, I want to thank the representatives of the Japanese American community who are not yet in Congress.